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NFL officials use a mechanic (and our FED crew is now using it as well) where they start a new set of downs with the nose of the ball touching a yard line. With the perfect lines on an NFL field you can be guaranteed of judgement without measurements if the nose of the ball is reaching the line to gain.
If that was the case here, the crew knew the ball had to reach the 1 to be a first down. I thought the same thing as BadNewsRef. He was pretty much straight-up with the ball in the arm furthest from the end zone and his feet never crossed the one. What this tells you is he never reached the line to gain. Whether it's 1 inch or 18 inches from the line is irrelevant. He was still short.
That being said, I thought it was pretty bold of the referee to overturn the spot. That was a very big spot in a very big game and you had better be 110% certain the spot was wrong. I guess it actually helped Dallas in a strange way. Had they given him the first down, they would have run the clock down to 4 seconds left and missed the field goal (assuming the same misfortune for TR) with no chance for a Hail Mary at the end. Terry Glenn was open at the back of the end zone and any tip would have resulted in a TD and win for Dallas. Just an odd twist to the play. What an amazing finish! I feel for your mcrowder.
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